Jenna Bush Hager on motherhood and working

At the 23rd annual Book of Hope Luncheon for the Crohn's & Colitis… (submitted photo, FPG )

March 20, 2013|Marci Shatzman mshatzman@tribune.com

Don't ask Jenna Bush Hager if she's taking a maternity leave from her job as a correspondent for NBC's "Today" show.

"You wouldn't ask my husband that," she said, taking exception to the question in an interview before her appearance at the Book of Hope Luncheon for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation at the Boca Resort & Club on March 11. "I'll work up to the last month. We don't know if it's a boy or girl."

Hager, 31, announced her pregnancy on TV and her baby bump was noted by People in a photo from President's weekend. She "will become a first-time mom this spring," according to the magazine.

Hager plans to take some time off over the summer, she said in the interview here. But she's keeping her due date private, although it's obvious she's coming down the home stretch.

"I can't believe people are still asking that question and it's personal," she said.

She has joined activist Gloria Steinem and the women of ABC-TV in the national online discussion on "Lean In," the controversial bestseller on women in the workplace and their willingness to lead.

"I posted a blog on their website," she said.

"After appearing on the 'Today' show twice for Ana's story and another book I wrote, I was asked if I'd consider becoming a correspondent," Hager wrote on the blog. "At the time, it seemed ridiculous. I was a teacher and a writer; I barely watched television.

"But after a year of thinking…I knew if I didn't try, I'd always regret it."

"I'm not criticizing [Sheryl] Sandberg at all," she said, about the "Lean In" author, who has started the discussion on women as business leaders.

She's so busy preparing for the baby and working that she doesn't plan to do anything more about "Lean In," Hager said.

Raised in the White House and with her father and grandfather former U.S. presidents, Hager started out teaching as a reading specialist in Baltimore. But now she lives in New York, and for the last three years she has reported from Haiti, Ethiopia, Honduras and Guatemala, according to her blog.

Her appearance in Boca Raton was one of the last celebrity speaking engagements this season here, and it will probably be her last out of town because of her pregnancy, she said in the interview.

"I will curb travel," she said.

She agreed to do the talk for this nonprofit because "I speak for any organization that raises awareness and saves lives," she said.

Laura and George Bush, her parents are fine and excited at the prospective of being first-time grandparents. They're busy preparing for the May 1 opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas, she said.

"We try to go to Texas as much as possible, and we filmed two back-to-back segments there," she added.